Faithful readers will recall that January was a bit of a bummer. We arrived home from Antarctica, which was good. Then Mary Alice had pneumonia, which was bad. Then she got a shot and recovered, which was good. Then I had a gall stone attack and had to have emergency surgery to have the gall stones and gall bladder removed. Which was bad. But, and here’s the Little Miss Sunshine aspect of it, it could have been worse. It’s just like the earthquake that happens at 3 a.m. instead of rush hour. Suppose the gall stones had gotten stuck while I was in Antarctica. It would have been worse.

It seemed like things had settled down and as February passed we began preparing our trip to Barcelona. Today, we left for the first stage of that trip: Alderpoint to SSF where we overnight in the Good Nite Inn before flying to Miami.

So yesterday I made my last Eureka court appearance, before the trip, and went to Costco to see about some new tires for the ’99 Volvo, which is the car we were to drive to SSF in. The Costco guy and I went out and kicked the tires and concluded that I needed new front tires. Naturally they didn’t have the type I needed, they are special order only – and wouldn’t get to Costco till a day after I left for the trip. So I ordered them, and the Costco guy and I thought I could drive another 1000 miles on the tires I had.

That proved to be incorrect. In fact, last night while driving to Ukiah for my last court appearance there before the trip, the car started shaking at speeds over 50. That lasted until Sherwood road when the right front tire blew out.. It was dark. Really dark. There are no street lights at the intersection of Sherwood road and US 101. Perhaps I had a flashlight? Sure enough in the glove compartment was a little flashlight. Sure enough it didn’t work. So I went to the trunk where I have a kit for everything that might go wrong. I’m a sucker for these kits. Its got a screwdriver, and a wrench, and jumper cables, a camera to take a shot of the accident if you have one, and a notebook to write details in, and a flashlight. And the flashlight worked.

Now the problem was I can only lift 10 pounds, doctor’s orders, while recovering from surgery. How to get the lug nuts off? I did it by putting the lug wrench on the nuts and then standing, or even bouncing on the wrench to loosen the nuts. That worked. I found a rock to keep the car from rolling away, put it in front of the rear tire, jacked the car up and the phone rang.

It was a potential client who told me of his troubles while I unscrewed the lug nuts and pulled off the tire. I decided that the tire and wheel weighed an honorary 10 pounds, so I could lift it into the trunk. I counseled the potential client and made arrangements to speak with him in the morning.

There was no spare tire in the Volvo, just one of those pretend tires that you can’t run over 50 mph, and you can’t go far on. So I put it on, tightened the lug nuts by bouncing on the lug wrench and slowly drove to Ukiah. Naturally by the time I got there Patrona’s was closed. So I had 3 cookies at the Best Western, a small bottle of wine, and went to bed.

In the morning I showed up at the Ukiah court, and so did my client. Always a good sign. But the co-defendant didn’t, and neither did the DA. He was off sick, and we put everything off. (That’s always good).

Better yet, Big O tires had just my size the next morning. But not just my performance rating, so I had to buy 4 new tires. They lent me their van to go back to the Best western and change into civie clothes. I got the car with its new tires ($500+), picked up the Girl Scout cookies I had ordered from my investigator (don’t ask) and drove home.

So, was it good that the tire blew out before the trip started, giving me time to get new tires and not delay the trip, or was it bad the tire blew out instead of lasting until I could get back to Costco and get the new tires I ordered? All I know is it could have been worse.

Presidents' day creates a 3 day weekend. Day 1 is Saturday when I do my radio show on KMUD which is streamed so you can hear it live 9:30- 11:30 a.m. and archived for 2 weeks so you can listen to parts you missed if you're quick about it.

Day 2 is Sunday, and I got to take my walk around the ranch which I really should be doing daily. More flowers are out including this little meadow flower:



Also the daffodils are up and out. The previous owners of the ranch planted them in the late 1970s and they have flourished (and moved around a bit). We had violets blooming too, but I thought you'd like the native flower the best (assuming that it is native. It is to the extent that we don't cultivate it).

The trail still has quite a few marshy parts, so the land has not dried out despite a let up in the rains (until later this week). I have several ideas how to keep my feet dry by better trail building in the marshy parts, but for now I use rubber overshoes.

I had a great mushroom shot looking something like the rings of Saturn, but it was out of focus.

My first court appearance in Del Norte county for a while was Friday morning. I stayed at the Anchor inn, which is quite nice. Spacious room, ethernet & wi-fi internet, microwave, refrig, bathtub and right by the water. Here's the view I was greeted with in the morning (with a little bit of zooming with my lens)



When I checked in the desk clerk offered to book me a table at the Harbor restaurant. Ok, I said, and a table for 1 at 7pm was booked. About then I walked through the trailer park and up the handcapped ramp to the 2nd floor restaurant. It was jammed. Perhaps it was Valentine's day dinner? I was immediately shown to a window table by a beautiful young woman who promptly disappeared. I never saw her again. After about 20 minutes someone came to see if I wanted to order a drink. Only if I get something to eat, too, I said because I was on the verge of leaving. He took my drink and food order. Another 10 minutes and I had clam chowder (ok), followed in about 10 more minutes by shrimp cocktail (good) and then 10 minutes later, calamari steak (to die for) with a $4glass of not very good Australian Syrah. Perhaps I should have gotten the $7 glass? So the upshot? Good food if you don't mind waiting a long time, don't get the cheap wine. Waitresses, when they come by, speak a lot of clearly put-on "Hows everything tonight" stuff - so service was poor. Perhaps things are better when its not Valentine's day. I may never find out.

My tentative recommendation: Stay at the Anchor, but don't eat at the Harbor. There's another seafood place just down the beach.

On the way home I saw the famous Elk herd

Sunny today - how odd it seems to write those words. 2008, so far, has not been sunny - but today it was and its a court holiday so I went for a walk on the ranch trail this morning for the first time since the operation. The trail winds back and forth for about 1 mile on the first half, laid out to try and go thru a variety of microenvironments. The garden, a meadow, the fir forest, blackberries on a hillside, dense forest, thick blackberries, the old spring, more forest, another meadow, down the old road, up through the firs to a plum grove (wait till they flower) up under the powerlines with their on planetary system, and follow the road back.



I've often thought that we have flowers in bloom all year round on the ranch. Here's the one I saw today - a small "meadow flower" at the edge of the garden path.

The Doctor said (or my sweetie said it perhaps) stop and get out of the car every hundred miles or so and walk around a little bit. Good for your health.

I stopped at Dora Creek. Here's one of my series "Waterfalls of California"